springtime for neko

My kitty Neko is so damn cute, but I always have trouble taking his picture because he's black and doesn't stay still.  Of course trying to take pictures of him rolling around in catnip probably requires more light.  This first one is my favorite, but I wish I'd gotten his whole other paw in the frame.  He's so cute in the second and third that I just had to post them.  He's a bit of a panther. 

Spring time!  I love the water in this one, but the geese were so dark.  I photoshopped them lighter, but it's so obvious.  Maybe geese shadows would've been better.

Better lighting on the geese, but this picture kinda bores me...

I thought this picture would blow, but I kind of like it.  Swim little guy, swiiiiiim.  To the trees!  This one has a bit of an antiqued feel to it.  I wish I could frame it in a viewfinder type of thing.  I almost never like the same picture viewing it on my LCD display after seeing it on my computer.  It's not quite as instant feedback as I'd like, so I'm still perplexed trying to find the right settings for the right situations. 

I always favor macro.  

The Fam.  I need to rotate the original a bit to straighten out the trees and re-crop.  I wish I'd used a larger pixel count for this one.  I set them smaller on my camera so I could take tons and tons of pictures without carrying spare memory around with me.  I think the turtles would be sharper and I could play with the picture more.

gentle giant

gentle giant

I took pictures of Neko today.  I pretty much try the tv (shutter speed priority) setting, the av (aperture priority) setting and manual settings for every subject.  I like the composition of this picture, but it was really difficult to get a sharp focus since I don't have a tripod and have to put the aperture at about 3 seconds because he's so dark.  Fortunately he didn't move around too much.  

I adjusted the midtone levels mostly, made the hue a bit more yellow and decreased the saturation a tinge.  He's such a gentle giant and I wonder if that comes through in this picture.   I love his little beard.  Of course it will never look spectacular if the focus is a bit blurry.  

Branding.

I need your help, peeps.  I'm working on a marketing exercise in order to get a better idea of what impression people already have of my soap/company in comparison/contrast to the image I'd like for people to have.  One of the questions, which seems easy upon first inspection, is:

"How would your friends describe sudstress?"

Well, I'm not exactly sure, so I'm asking you all (at least ;jimiyo, Holly and Kim) to tell me.  I know this blog tends to be more about me than the soap itself, but I'd really like an honest word/words/sentence(s) based on your perception of Sudstress the brand, as it is.  If you read this blog even close to regularly but have never commented, please feel free to chime in as I would love some feedback.  If you need to, take a look at my website and then come back and comment.  I really appreciate your help!  Also, I will change my settings to allow anonymous comments, so if you've tried to comment before and couldn't, you can now and in the future.